"You mean Captain Thatch?" Blackbeard's tone turned somewhat strange. No matter the circumstances, ambushing a companion from behind was an act despised by pirates.
"I'm sorry about that, but I had no choice! We discovered the Dark-Dark Fruit together. If I hadn't acted, then my dream—everything I've believed in for so long—would have become worthless!"
"Tch!" Ace snorted in displeasure. He despised Blackbeard's excuses from the bottom of his heart. "In that case, let's stop wasting words. As a former member of the Whitebeard Pirates, you should know the consequences of killing a companion."
As the words fell, his gaze abruptly changed. His body leaped high into the air, both arms already fully transformed into flames.
"Take that disgusting face of yours to hell and apologize to Thatch!"
As Ace spoke coldly, his flaming arms swung repeatedly, blasting downward. Flames instantly spread out and completely engulfed Blackbeard.
"Captain!" Van Augur cried out. As the sniper of the Blackbeard Pirates, he reacted at once, raising his long rifle and firing after a brief moment of concentration.
With a thunderous boom, power that no firearm of this era should have possessed erupted. It exploded in midair and swept the flames from the sky clean away.
"Fire Fist Ace, aren't you getting a little too cocky?" Van Augur said grimly. He fired several shots in succession, the high-speed bullets surpassing the limits of what the eye could track as they passed straight through Ace's body and flew into the distance.
Two wisps of flame rose from where Ace had been hit, but he was completely unaffected and continued charging downward.
The instant he landed, he slammed a fist into the ground. Flames surged up at once, forming a ring-shaped domain that surrounded everyone present, including Blackbeard.
"Now you have nowhere to run!" Ace